Skulls of the Shogun, a game about a recently slain samurai fighting his way though the afterlife, is nothing if not slow. Its bright palette, bawdy humor, and straightforward concepts suggest an easy, breezy turn-based strategy game, but large maps, limited moves per turn, and cutthroat enemy armies combine to make skirmishes feel long and drawn-out. Don’t mistake “slow” for “meticulous” or “tedious,” though, as Skulls of the Shogun is neither, opting instead for a series of tense, chaotic, down-to-the-last-man tête-à-têtes.

With Thanksgiving taking over Thursday this week, Apple opted to loosen the floodgates a day early, and we’ve got several intriguing new iOS games to pull you away from mundane family encounters — such as the super charming Icycle: On Thin Ice, the surely absorbing Skulls of the Shogun and Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, and quicker-hit entries like Darklings and Skateboard Slam.